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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25324609">game night</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jydaria/pseuds/Jydaria'>Jydaria</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>snapshots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SPY x FAMILY (Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Family Feels, Gen, Humor, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:53:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,958</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25324609</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jydaria/pseuds/Jydaria</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Forger family starts a weekly game night tradition. It’s for the sake of the mission, of course.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anya Forger &amp; Loid Forger | Twilight &amp; Yor Briar Forger | Thorn Princess</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>snapshots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1827979</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>122</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>game night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks for reading and/or enabling my dive into sxf *sobbing*</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Twilight had </span>
  <em>
    <span>so many</span>
  </em>
  <span> birds to kill and </span>
  <em>
    <span>so few</span>
  </em>
  <span> stones. How could he keep up the farce of a loving family in front of prying eyes, set up Anya to earn more stella stars non-academically, push forward with Anya’s education to </span>
  <em>
    <span>at least</span>
  </em>
  <span> prevent her from failing, and find more ways for her to connect with Damian Desmond? And that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>only</span>
  </em>
  <span> touching the iceberg for him to maintain Operation Strix, not to mention his jobs </span>
  <em>
    <span>outside</span>
  </em>
  <span> Operation Strix. If he let himself rest, he’d feel the burn out, and inertia would keep him there. No, he had to keep going, and even more, at that. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He didn’t even realize he had sighed until Yor asked him how he was doing and if he’d like a cup of tea. He couldn’t believe he was letting his guard down around these two so much…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yor, I’d like your opinion on something.” As she made her way from behind him to the adjacent couch, he thought of the most lost-father-seeming way to phrase his question. “I’m worried about Anya’s worldview. If I could be doing more to raise her, as I didn’t have much of a childhood myself.” He makes eye contact with Yor and is struck by how it feels to have someone </span>
  <em>
    <span>truly</span>
  </em>
  <span> listen. “We did it for the interview, but we can’t exactly go out to the museum and opera every day, or even every weekend. But I don’t want Anya’s childhood to just be anime and studying. There’s also not many chores we can give her aside from cleaning up her toys and feeding Bond.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yor rested her chin in the heel of her hand silently, the space between them filled with the muted buzz of Anya’s spy anime and Bond’s soft snoring. “Well, I think I remember my mom playing some sort of game with my brother to get him to eat more vegetables. I can’t say exactly what it was, and I don’t think Anya would be receptive to that anyway,” Twilight laughed along, “But I think she might learn something from playing other games, you never know! You said she learned math easier with a real-life example, after all.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And it struck him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Chess! Yor, that’s a great idea!” He could kiss her. Completely metaphorically, of course. It was genius—there were chess tournaments for potential stellas, it was a perfectly acceptable upper-crust game to get in Damian’s good graces, and if all else failed, good to engender a knack for strategy. “Hmm, but I don’t think Anya would take to chess so easily, maybe we’ll have to look at other games...” his train of thought knocked him back to reality. Yor smiled brightly at his enthusiasm. Not tonight, but he’d start the plan soon enough. Besides, Operation Strix was a marathon, not a sprint. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sleeping on it was definitely a good choice. He realized that there were so many ways to use games to augment Anya’s learning in more subtle ways than studying. Plus, with games came more avenues for external and intrinsic motivation. It was a win-win for Operation Strix. Hopefully he wasn’t speaking too soon on that—after all, what could possibly go wrong? Not just chess, there were economic games, strategy games, word games, maybe venturing back into physical ability. Games opened up so many possibilities. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That night, they went out shopping for three board games </span>
  <em>
    <span>“One game each, Anya,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> and not four </span>
  <em>
    <span>“Bond can’t choose a game and it’s not like we can read his mind to find out.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> The trip went better than Twilight expected. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Look, I won’t cause trouble at the volunteer place anymore, I have my own surg-ree room now!” Operation. He, knowing Anya, went into the store with no expectations or predictions so he wouldn’t be disappointed with how he had no idea what was on Anya’s mind.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now, what was Yor looking at? “Even if I don’t know my own strength, there’s no way this could go wrong...no broken bones…” Well, he agreed Jenga had nothing to do with broken bones. Normally. He’d proceed with caution. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Have you two both decided on a game?” he asked, and they were soon back hom—at their shared apartment. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Pa, why is there a pencil stuck in his arm from a writer’s cramp?” her eyes said, </span>
  <em>
    <span>“I don’t want a pencil in my arm.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> He quickly explained </span>
  <em>
    <span>“It’s an idiom, Anya, do you remember what episode Bondman mentioned a writer's cramp?” </span>
  </em>
  <span>because the last he—the world—needed was for her to give up on school out of fear of getting a pencil in her arm.   </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thank god she was only 6 (or did that work against him in terms of gullibility?), because the medical inaccuracies in this game were giving him a headache. On the bright side, she was learning more about common idioms from this than from </span>
  <em>
    <span>Spy Wars</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Hopefully. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ma, Pa, it’s not good to fight.” If it were anybody else, Twilight would have let the comment slide off like water off a duck. But Anya was an impressionable 6 year old, so he smiled and ruffled her hair. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re not fighting. There is no argument, because Yor, everybody knows you put the Jenga pieces long side laying down.” He said this while looking at Anya, although he did glance pointedly at Yor for a second because it was only polite. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yor stared back like he threatened to take Anya away or something. He swore it didn’t make his breath catch amidst his throat. “That’s if you make the pieces flush against each other, then there’s no room to pinch the pieces. If you lay them on the other side, then you have to space them out to get them to line up with the next row.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Twilight tried not to betray too much conviction as he held up the box, “Yor, even on the box, it shows you how the pieces should be assembled to form the tower.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh Loid,” she sighed, “If things were always according to the standards society presented, then I would cook more often.” Twilight could practically feel his eyes bug out of his head. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s not the </span>
  <em>
    <span>same</span>
  </em>
  <span> and you know it!” But part of him was </span>
  <em>
    <span>only slightly</span>
  </em>
  <span> worried that she was more bothered than her “joke” let on. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ma, Pa, it’s done!” Bond woofed along with Anya’s cheering. What was on the table was...an abomination. An insult to the game of Jenga. Anya had attempted to compromise, it seemed, as each alternating row was laid long side down and short side down. Twilight and Yor side-eyed each other warily. What was the worst that could happen? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>By the end of it, they all agreed they’d alternate between which side of the Jenga block would lay down between each game, and keep each game’s structure consistent.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>A very hopeful part of Twilight thought he could use Pictionary as a pseudo-substitute Rorschach test, after what happened with the sand table. The more cynical (or perhaps darkly amused) part of Twilight remembered Anya’s drawing of Eden Academy’s cow. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A bomb!” Anya said confidently.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Pictionary, he decided, was better off retired. There were better games out there to build Anya’s vocabulary. Even if she didn’t know what a </span>
  <em>
    <span>pineapple</span>
  </em>
  <span> was— </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, a penapple!” she guessed next. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He smiled past the mounting concerns of why the first thing she thought he drew was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>bomb, </span>
  </em>
  <span>“A pineapple, yes that’s correct, Anya!” He was surely overthinking it. Pictionary was hardly a Rorschach test. She probably just thought it was a bomb because of watching </span>
  <em>
    <span>Spy Wars</span>
  </em>
  <span>. That was it. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>With their initial three games out of the running for pushing Anya’s learning along (despite how eerily well Anya took to Pictionary), but the premise still promising, the Forger family (sans Bond) went out shopping. Again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Pa, it’s a </span>
  <em>
    <span>spy game</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Anya said reverently, stars in her eyes that peeked above the box of Codenames. Well, if she was going to choose a game to build her vocabulary herself, then he could go ahead and choose a game to supplement her math. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yor, what game are you thinking about?” he asked, since she seemed to be deciding between two boxes in her hands. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ma, does that have mishuns?” Anya bounced on the balls of her feet. Games indeed were good to build up Anya’s motivation to develop fine motor and academic skills. He could probably even later construe chess as a mission...to hunt the king, perhaps, and to target other pieces when necessary to achieve that. But not to actually take the king as you would other pieces. It was almost like Operation Strix itself, to that effect, with Donovan Desmond as king. Anya was now staring at him, mouth agape. Did he miss out on some conversation while lost in thought?  </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>They started with Yor’s game first that night. Much like Pictionary and the bomb, Twilight also didn’t think too much into how Yor inspected the dagger piece. While Twilight would have </span>
  <em>
    <span>hoped</span>
  </em>
  <span> to teach Anya the historical allegory presented by Cluedo, he knew it wouldn’t stick much and resolved to keep the game light-hearted so Anya wouldn’t completely associate family board games with studying. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As it turned out, it wasn’t Anya he should have worried about. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How sloppy,” he could have sworn he heard Yor scoff under her breath. The next moment, though, he became preoccupied with trying to convince Anya </span>
  <em>
    <span>“No, you can’t become a detective like Professor Layton and get a stella by solving murder cases, real life doesn’t work like that,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>and when he looked back up, Yor didn’t look any bit changed than she did a few minutes before. Must have been his imagination. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can we play the spy game next?” Anya bounced up and down on her couch cushion, eyeing the Codenames box. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And thus, they ran into a sort of problem. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, Anya, I should have realized and read the instructions at the store.” he apologized after they set up the cards and were getting ready to split up into teams. Except. There were three of them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can call Yuri, but I don’t know if he’d be free so last minute?” Yor offered up, as Anya’s eyes began to well up and her lip began to quiver. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Well, although that would certainly drive home the “family friendly” image, that wasn’t an encounter Twilight was </span>
  <em>
    <span>actively</span>
  </em>
  <span> looking to seek out. But even in front of these two, some pretenses had to be kept, and he couldn’t shoot down the idea without any logical grounds to do so. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry Ma, Pa can be the spymaster for both of us!” Anya chirped, and with her vote mattering the most to both him and Yor, they began. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Like with Pictionary, their game of Codenames ended quickly with Anya reigning victor, even after Yor swapped with him as spymaster. He really had to pinpoint what was contributing to Anya’s vocabulary and double efforts on keeping that up. Now that he thought about it, she also 100% correctly filled out the crossword on her first try when they first met. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Once Anya swapped in for spymaster, it was like she stole the words out of his mouth when giving her clues. Was it from the spy anime? He knew they mentioned some of these words in passing, but… </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That wasn't very spy-like at all." Anya full force pouted, dejected, and Bond whuffed quietly in support. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t sure why she seemed so distraught when she had won Codenames, compared to their other games, like Jenga, but he had never understood her much in the first place. "Don't worry Anya, Guess Who is more spy-like," as much as one dwarf could be taller than another. "In this game, you'll have to ask questions to hunt down your target." And although still skeptical, he could tell he had her attention. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"How about Yor and I play first to show you the strategy behind this?" Using simple math, he could almost guarantee a win in 5 questions or less. And maybe teach Anya about probability. ...he'd probably just stick to fractions, to start off with. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For some reason, Anya dashed from Yor's couch to his, leaving Yor comically heartbroken and Bond curled up at Yor's feet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So if you have 24 people, you want to narrow down your target by getting rid of the suspects by half with each question. What’s half of 24?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“12 suspects!” Anya answered seriously. She stared at the board some more, “Not even half are girls,” she squinted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right, so that’s why you want to combine attributes until you get a pool of 12 targets to narrow it down from.” Aaaand he could see in her eyes the minute he lost her. Maybe the demonstration would make more sense. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yor chuckled at the interaction in front of her, “Are you sure you should be revealing your strategy to the enemy, Loid?” Anya gasped melodramatically and jumped onto the couch to start whispering. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If it weren’t for how he knew how well (that is to say, </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>well) she guessed when it came to multiple choice questions on her test, he’d say she were psychic. Or had a penchant for lucky guesses. He was only entertaining the idea because he didn’t think she was picking up fractions that quickly. But hey, he was very open to being proved wrong. If games and family time were giving Anya incentive to continue building her vocabulary and learning math, then he’d gladly help provide that. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even if it was only their third visit and thus third week visiting that toy shop, some of the employees recognized them from their previous visits. Twilight couldn’t say he minded that, particularly, since it could potentially curb any unsavory rumors. If it were to reach their neighbors, that were. It wasn’t because hearing </span>
  <em>
    <span>“You three are such a sweet family”</span>
  </em>
  <span> made him feel anything. Even if that were the case, it would only be a little pride at knowing Operation Strix was proceeding relatively smoothly, at least to outsiders, which was what mattered in the end. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Loid, since Anya and I went first last two times, why don’t we start with your game this week?” Yor voice carried over the clinking of glass and ceramic, and when he re-entered the living room with drinks and snacks, he saw she had already set up Scrabble for the three of them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Judging by Anya’s precociously large vocabulary but difficulty with enunciating and writing, he hoped this game would help augment wherever that vocabulary was coming from. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Now I know not to expect any stellas from spelling bees from now,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> he thought wearily after the nth time of Anya putting forth a good effort to wrack up high-points words he didn’t know she had learned, but spelling them incorrectly. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yor didn’t know how to play Dominoes. Anya also didn’t know how to play Dominoes, but that was okay, because she was 6. However, neither of them seemed interested in how to play Dominoes. And that was okay, because Twilight convinced himself he could teach Anya an intro to physics with how they were playing Dominoes. If anything else, at least this session of family game night was keeping her happy and motivated.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then he watched as Bond prematurely set off the Domino line with his tail by accident, and Twilight ran to the kitchen to grab peanut bribes while Yor did the initial damage control. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Twilight hadn’t planned on buying Mastermind until a week or two later, to ease Anya into strategy games (and eventually, chess), but Anya chose Mastermind that week, for one reason or another (he wouldn’t be surprised if it were related to </span>
  <em>
    <span>Spy Wars</span>
  </em>
  <span>, though). He was also lucky the three of them were comfortable enough to compromise with their odd number of players for the various games, and sitting out when necessary. Although, he knew, spectating was certainly more than interesting. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He promised himself that he’d watch out for her strengths with careful vigilance to most effectively provide her with avenues to earn stellas. But so far, she seemed to be excelling at strategy games and vocabulary games that didn’t care about spelling. Which really just narrowed back down his options to chess, but that was fine. It was something, and better than nothing. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With how easily she was taking to Mastermind—even though he couldn’t make </span>
  <em>
    <span>heads nor tails</span>
  </em>
  <span> of her strategy method, it was unlike </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span> he’d ever seen before and only slightly scary—he figured she was ready to start learning chess.  </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was not yet ready for chess. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He ended up getting his hopes up because she correctly identified by name the strategy he opened with, but she kept mixing up legal moves between each piece. Plus, chess tournaments were timed, and she either spent too long or not long enough deciding on moves. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“Remember, Twilight, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And despite how well she did at Guess Who and Mastermind, she didn't like Connect 4 as much. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As for Monopoly...he was just going to pray next week was better. Everybody had their ups and downs. He shouldn’t be so discouraged just because this week was. Chaotic. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Twilight came home late from a mission one night to discover that Yor had unearthed a deck of cards she had made to play with Yuri in their childhood and was using them to build a tower of cards with Anya. It went about as well as the time they combined Domino and Jenga pieces to build a tower. At least they were having fun. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why don’t we go shopping for new games early, this week?” He asked, “We can clean this up when we get home.” Home. The word fell so easily from his lips. It was like he wasn’t even acting. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Battleship was a good game to start the night off. The premise easily hooked Anya’s interest, and she was again pretty good with the strategy for yet another reason he couldn’t figure out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yor was scarily flexible. Twilight had seen how agile she had been—</span>
  <em>
    <span>even when drunk—</span>
  </em>
  <span>and now, completely sober, she seemed like she was going to win Twister between the three of them. To be fair, Anya, being 6, was at a natural disadvantage. Perhaps he’d need to find more time in the day (time travel, please and thank you) to keep himself in shape. Games aside, Yor was apparently going to great lengths to enhance Anya’s physical prowess for upcoming sports tournaments and such. It was yet another long-term way Anya could win a stella, so he didn’t dwell on it too much for the time being. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Another reason why he abandoned that train of thought was because Bond had decided to barrel into the haphazardly balanced Forger family, knocking them all into a dogpile on top of the Twister mat. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Following that, after they exhausted most of their energy with Twister, Mousetrap was so light-hearted, it made him think </span>
  <em>
    <span>“You know what, Twilight, you shouldn’t expect her to learn chess all in a day. Let’s give it another go. You have it good right now.”</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Pa, I’m going to try very hard to get a stella,” she said out of the blue, turning to face him from where Bond and Yor were busy smothering her in affection. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sy-on boy, I challenge you to a game of chess!” she stated while throwing down her favorite pair of gloves onto his desk. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Becky gasped, “Eek, Anya!! You were so intimidating just now!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“As if you would know how to actually play chess, 30-point wonder!” Ewen jeered from next to Damian, yet Anya kept her eyes resolutely on Damian. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Wow, she really only has eyes for him,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Anya heard Becky think incredulously. What was that supposed to mean? But Pa being a spy and this mission were secrets, so she couldn’t ask or talk about it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I—” Damian stammered, his thoughts going a mile a minute like how Pa’s sometimes did, “It’s almost lunch time!” His ears were oddly red. Was he getting sick? Pa mentioned something about flew season where people would get sick. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then after school,” she persevered. Luckily—knock on wood—she didn’t have any supplemental lessons after school today. And it wasn’t like he would either, for that matter.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The staring contest between the two of them (plus their three friends, well, one of her friends and two of his because all of them weren’t friends...</span>
  <em>
    <span>yet</span>
  </em>
  <span>) was interrupted by another person joining the conversation. “It is very inelegant of a gentleman to refuse a formal duel,” Professor Henderson intoned from the aisle at the end of the desk. Damian’s redness intensified and spread to his face, and Anya resisted from reaching over with her hand to check his temperature as Yor and Becky had done to her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Miss Forger,” she broke her gaze to turn to Professor Henderson, “Did you bring a chess board and the appropriate pieces with you?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She nodded and said, “Yes, sir,” and preened from garnering a look of </span>
  <em>
    <span>very slight</span>
  </em>
  <span> approval from Professor Henderson for her elegance. She struggled very valiantly to not turn her head back and stick her tongue out at Damian. But! She wasn’t supposed to one-up Damian, like how Becky was thinking right now, she was supposed to befriend him and play chess at his house!! Her good mood sank right back down. Why was Damian so infuriating?!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Does that sound alright to you, Miss Forger?” she snapped back to attention—</span>
  <em>
    <span>she read the other students’ minds and it didn’t give any helpful information to elucidate what it was she had missed—</span>
  </em>
  <span>and nodded mutely, hoping she didn’t sign away her doom. “What elegant behavior you’re setting, Miss Forger. Then we shall all reconvene this afternoon for some chess and tea. I’ll procure additional chess sets for the rest of you.” He looked pointedly at the three boys’ direction. Oh. Oh no. This wasn’t good. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re home later than usual, Anya, how was school? Did you play chess with Damian?” he asked from where he and Yor were preparing dinner together.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Anya sat down onto the couch with a loud </span>
  <em>
    <span>thump</span>
  </em>
  <span> and let her backpack fall from her hand to the floor. Bond joined her on the couch to start licking her face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I beat half glasses man in chess.” she stated, but didn’t sound at all proud or excited. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You beat Professor Henderson in chess?!” While he had </span>
  <em>
    <span>many questions</span>
  </em>
  <span>, such as how she ended up playing against Professor Henderson instead of Damian, it was truly a feat, and he washed his hands hurriedly to join her in the living room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He picked her up by her arms to hoist her into the air, hoping it would also metaphorically lift her spirits. She met his eyes, and finished her story, “After that, only the adults would play chess with me. Not even Becky wanted to play chess with me. Sy-on boy refused to, even after half glasses man called him inelegant.” She was still pouting, and Yor soon joined him in Bond in cheering her up. Chess was just a way to both earn stellas and maybe befriend Damian, but it was no loss if that didn’t work. They had time and more methods open to them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hell, even that didn’t matter right now. He was proud of her for coming this far. If Anya gave up from every setback, then the mission would be doomed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Something they said or did must have worked, because she perked right back up and asked, “Pa, can we do some escape rooms next week?” and he almost dropped her. When had he mentioned WISE’s training escape rooms?! </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I had no idea what games existed in that time period (ex. branded Mastermind didn’t exist until 1971, aka post canon timeframe) and _really_ wanted to reference many of them so I just said “fanon = artistic license anything goes lezgo.” Also the Pictionary scene is a reference to her bomb symbol in ketchup... And the Guess Who strategy is devised and explained so eloquently by Mark Rober on Youtube </p><p>Someone please explain to me where Anya got the nickname “Sy-on boy” from, it’s not like “SEcond sON” or anything, is it? Also this went on longer than I thought it would o o p s (mostly because, despite playing all these games growing up, I didn’t really remember how to play them?) </p><p>Mild omake, because I didn’t actually include it in here because describing a chess game is. A lot. How much to focus on the actual chess vs the story.<br/>Anya, with a hyper-serious face@Twilight while playing chess: Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.<br/>Twilight: ...what</p></blockquote></div></div>
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